A few people have been confused about this recently, so I am changing the wording of the documentation slightly, although I think mostly the problem is that people haven't found this in the application documentation:

"Note: If FILE is a directory name, then only file types with recognized extensions are processed when reading, and only writable types are processed when any tag is written. However, the -ext option may be used to force processing of files with any extension."

Please let me know if you still have any questions.

- Phil

If you want to move JPG, CR2 and ARW files, add the following arguments anywhere in your command line:

- Phil

Hi Aaron,

OK, you got me. You can add options to the command line anywhere except in the middle of another option. The -d option takes an argument, which must come immediately after "-d". Similarly, the extension must come immediately after "-ext" (ie. "-ext ARW"). But other than that, the options you are using can be in any order.

Glad it works for you now though.

- Phil

Hi Arthur,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have had a number of requests for ARW write support, and had a couple of false starts trying to implement this. One real problem that I have no control over is that the Sony ARW format isn't consistent from model to model, and in the past changes to the format could have easily caused the files to be corrupted if rewritten. To avoid this, I would have to have a model-specific check and validate each new model as it comes out. Needless to say, this is more work for me. And on top of that, there are a number of other technical reasons why the Sony format is more difficult to write in the first place (not the least of which is the nasty encryption tthey apply to their metadata).

I still hope to implement ARW write support, but it may be a while before I am able to do it. Right now I am too busy to even think about trying to attack this problem again, but it is on my list if I ever find myself with some extra time on my hands.

- Phil

Hello Phil - thanks for giving me an explanation of the difficulties in implementing ARW support; you have my sympathy, it does sound really complicated. In fact, it casts doubt on Sony's approach to getting into the serious amateur and semi-professional market: their own software is not so good that they don't need other people making tools for their DSLRs, which are surprisingly good.

Of course, for my part, you could simplify the task by just doing the A100 formats...

Thanks again, I couldn't be without ExifTool - regards, Arthur.